In ST's book, he recommends using IB to buy the IWDA component of our portfolio.

Did a quick research on IB and realised that they require a min sum of 10K USD, if not activity fee will be charge monthly.

In this case, what are the alternatives given that I do not have 10K of liquid cash to be parked there?

Thanks!

Actually there are different tiers of minimum fees. I believe for AUM of 0 to 2k, you will be charged $20 per month and $2k to $100k you will be charged $10 per month. There is no way avoiding fees. You pay them one way or the other, whichever platform you use.

Actually there are different tiers of minimum fees. I believe for AUM of 0 to 2k, you will be charged $20 per month and $2k to $100k you will be charged $10 per month. There is no way avoiding fees. You pay them one way or the other, whichever platform you use.

Thanks for your reply. Got it, I guess this 10 USD is unavoidable unless I have more than 100K with them.

If I refer to this link, it says the minimum sum to open an account is $10k USD.

For all IB users currently, does that mean I must always maintain a minimum $10K USD in the account? So after buying my monthly worth of IWDA stocks, I will have to top-up every time to meet the 10k? Or is this simply a lump sum required to open the account?

Also, it states on the website that if Average Equity Balance is less than USD 2,000, the commission will be $USD 20 instead. What do they mean by average equity balance? Is that cash that is sitting in the account? Or it includes as well the total value of stocks that I hold with them?

Sorry for the lengthy question - am rather new to this so want to get the context right.

Thanks for your reply. Got it, I guess this 10 USD is unavoidable unless I have more than 100K with them.

If I refer to this link, it says the minimum sum to open an account is $10k USD.

For all IB users currently, does that mean I must always maintain a minimum $10K USD in the account? So after buying my monthly worth of IWDA stocks, I will have to top-up every time to meet the 10k? Or is this simply a lump sum required to open the account?

Also, it states on the website that if Average Equity Balance is less than USD 2,000, the commission will be $USD 20 instead. What do they mean by average equity balance? Is that cash that is sitting in the account? Or it includes as well the total value of stocks that I hold with them?

Sorry for the lengthy question - am rather new to this so want to get the context right.

Thanks all!

The minimum initial deposit to open the account is 10K USD, although people here have reported that they were able to open an account with 6K USD too, but since it is officially not mentioned, you shouldnt bet on it.. I believe, once you open the account there is no need to maintain 10K, but I believe you will not be able to withdraw if you dont have 10K in your account.

The Average equity balance, means I believe daily average balance over a month, of all assets in your account(not necessarily equity as in shares) must be 2k. This can happen if you initially invest 10K, but later withdraw 8K or makes losses of 8k, then you will need to generate monthly commission of $20 or pay monthly fee of $20 minus the difference.

The minimum initial deposit to open the account is 10K USD, although people here have reported that they were able to open an account with 6K USD too, but since it is officially not mentioned, you shouldnt bet on it.. I believe, once you open the account there is no need to maintain 10K, but I believe you will not be able to withdraw if you dont have 10K in your account.

The Average equity balance, means I believe daily average balance over a month, of all assets in your account(not necessarily equity as in shares) must be 2k. This can happen if you initially invest 10K, but later withdraw 8K or makes losses of 8k, then you will need to generate monthly commission of $20 or pay monthly fee of $20 minus the difference.

Not sure if anyone encountered this. I bought the IWDA LSEETF in IB Trader Workstation, but the trades in my account management shows "SWDA", and I got charged USD5 for the comm instead of 0.005USD/share or min USD1, whichever is higher.

I understand that SWDA is traded in GBP so the min comm is USD5, but why is my trade under SWDA? Trader Workstation shows ticker as IWDA.

Yesterday night I sold my 600 IWDA that I had invested a week ago as I saw $400 profit and markets at all time high and too many factors that can create a fall anytime, gave me cold feet.

Ok, so now what...?
That fear of falling from all time highs has been with investors for the last two years.

I think we all have three choices:
Are you prepared to sell stocks and sit it out until the market falls to whatever arbitrary level you might feel comfortable at?
Can you sit watching graphs every night deciding whether to buy or sell based on the latest news?
Or can you ignore the media cycle, keep some cash for a rainy day, buy and hold a balanced portfolio, and as Mr Shiny so eloquently put it, go to the pub?

Not sure if anyone encountered this. I bought the IWDA LSEETF in IB Trader Workstation, but the trades in my account management shows "SWDA", and I got charged USD5 for the comm instead of 0.005USD/share or min USD1, whichever is higher.

I understand that SWDA is traded in GBP so the min comm is USD5, but why is my trade under SWDA? Trader Workstation shows ticker as IWDA.

IWDA trades on LSE but in USD currency and LSE trades for USD commission is $5 minimum or 0.005%. So it is correct. The report shows SWDA incorrectly, you can ignore it. GBP minimum commission is 6 GBP. So you are better off trading the IWDA which is in USD.

IBKR is the way to go if you are doing atleast 1 transaction in a month of S$ 1k. The savings on FX and on the minimum commission more than make up the $10 monthly fee. You can do anything with the $10k deposit. You can leave it as it is or even invest it fully. You can also convert your account to a margin account, in which case even if you deposit money worth 10k and buy stocks worth 10k, you don't really use up the entire 10k. I think only about 1/4th of the money is required as margin. This allows you to withdraw in case of emergency.

Yeah, I've been looking up articles and reviews of IBKR vs Stanchart and it does seem that it's more worth it to go with IBKR in the long run. As for a margin account, I'm a bit iffy about using money that's not mine and I think I'll just open a normal account for now.

wealth_farmer wrote:

I was able to activate my IBKR account with initial deposit of SGD 6k. I wouldn't recommend you fund to the proper minimum amount because you may find you are not able to withdraw what you deem as excess cash subsequent to your ETF purchase. In my case, with my SGD 6k, I found I was not able to initiate a withdrawal, presumably because I don't meet the minimum USD10k sum. Be careful though because there's a threshold amount below which you will be charged more than the usual USD 10 monthly minimum activity fee but I can't remember what that threshold amount is.

If you're committed to doing two USD-denominated ETF purchase every month, then IBKR makes more sense because with SCB, you'll incur two times the USD 10 brokerage, unless you're an SCB Priority Banking customer, then you can go with SCB.

Also, if your monthly investment amount is $1000, perhaps you could consider aggregating your sum and invest in each ETF alternately each month to lower your brokerage expense? Investing USD 220 per month into CORP is quite a small amount, for example. Maybe IWDA one month, and CORP the next? In that case, SCB could be better but IBKR is still fine if you can commit to one purchase every month.

I don't think you should open a margin account at this point in time.

If I understand this correctly, it means that they didn't allow you to make any withdrawals since you didn't deposit the full $10k at first, but once you added the remaining $4k, you could start withdrawing? So as long as one makes that initial $10k deposit, there will be no more restrictions, meaning that I can withdraw $5k after opening the account, buying some shares and then ensure I have the minimum + buffer?

revhappy wrote:

The Average equity balance, means I believe daily average balance over a month, of all assets in your account(not necessarily equity as in shares) must be 2k. This can happen if you initially invest 10K, but later withdraw 8K or makes losses of 8k, then you will need to generate monthly commission of $20 or pay monthly fee of $20 minus the difference.

So as long as the value of my shares stay above $2k, I don't need to have a minimum cash balance in the account? Or is the minimum cash balance of $2k required no matter how many shares you have?

If I understand this correctly, it means that they didn't allow you to make any withdrawals since you didn't deposit the full $10k at first, but once you added the remaining $4k, you could start withdrawing? So as long as one makes that initial $10k deposit, there will be no more restrictions, meaning that I can withdraw $5k after opening the account, buying some shares and then ensure I have the minimum + buffer?

I don't want to speculate on what are the conditions before IBKR will allow you to withdraw your cash because what I'm sharing is from personal experience, and I've not tried withdrawing funds from my account such that it falls below USD 10k.

What I'm suggesting is that you only put in the minimum to activate the account and lets you trade, and that you wouldn't need to initiate withdrawals.

IWDA trades on LSE but in USD currency and LSE trades for USD commission is $5 minimum or 0.005%. So it is correct. The report shows SWDA incorrectly, you can ignore it. GBP minimum commission is 6 GBP. So you are better off trading the IWDA which is in USD.

Question on this, if both IWDA and SWDA are similar ETF but in different currencies, why are the returns for both so different?

Yeah, I've been looking up articles and reviews of IBKR vs Stanchart and it does seem that it's more worth it to go with IBKR in the long run. As for a margin account, I'm a bit iffy about using money that's not mine and I think I'll just open a normal account for now.

If I understand this correctly, it means that they didn't allow you to make any withdrawals since you didn't deposit the full $10k at first, but once you added the remaining $4k, you could start withdrawing? So as long as one makes that initial $10k deposit, there will be no more restrictions, meaning that I can withdraw $5k after opening the account, buying some shares and then ensure I have the minimum + buffer?

So as long as the value of my shares stay above $2k, I don't need to have a minimum cash balance in the account? Or is the minimum cash balance of $2k required no matter how many shares you have?

2k can be cash and/or shares in total, this is my interpretation of average equity balance. Equity as in like when you buy a home, your equity in the home is the down payment + whatever principal you have repaid. Same way average equity balance is the value that you will receive if you were to liquidate your portfolio immediately.

Regarding margin, it is like having a credit card. You don't have to use it but it gives you flexibility. In case of IB, advantage of margin is you can maintain cash in SGD for example and trade in USD, you will be charged interest but it is very small for USD. Also you can buy and sell shares multiple times without waiting for settlement, in a margin account. But I agree for the purpose of just buy and hold forever you probably won't need a margin account.

For e.g. the 5 year returns for IWDA is 10.74% while it is 15.26% for SWDA.

Is that an effect of the currency difference?

Yes, it is because sterling has fallen against USD, the returns in sterling appear to be higher. Both ETFs don't pay out dividends, rather accumulate them, so other than currency they should be the same.

IWDA trades on LSE but in USD currency and LSE trades for USD commission is $5 minimum or 0.005%. So it is correct. The report shows SWDA incorrectly, you can ignore it. GBP minimum commission is 6 GBP. So you are better off trading the IWDA which is in USD.

I see. So I should be looking under UK commissions, LSE International Order Book and USD-denominated stocks charges. Thanks!

Yes, it is because sterling has fallen against USD, the returns in sterling appear to be higher. Both ETFs don't pay out dividends, rather accumulate them, so other than currency they should be the same.

In Shiny's book, he has advocated building our overseas portfolio through IWDA. Given the better returns for the pound, should we be going with the SWDA instead?

Or would it be the case that the currency appreciation / deprecation has no impact on the underlying assets, so we can still stick to IWDA as per Shiny's advice?

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